Collar Makes My Puppy "freak Out"!

I recently got a new puppy, a Chihuahua mix, 7 mos. old. Here is the problem. We put a collar on her and she freaks out. She runs and hides, either in a dark place or cuddles next to you scared to death. I kept the collar on her for two days. She would not move. I had to pick her up to take her to eat. She refused and ran and hid. I even had to pick her up and take her out side to due her business. She did her business as quick as possible and ran back inside and hid. I finally took the collar off and she was back to normal. Now, if she even sees the collar she runs. We really need to have a collar on her for her tags. What should we do? I do not know much about her past, but I do not believe she was kept tied up. Any help?
Thank you,
Nutkitten

you have two options. leave the collar on until she figures out there isn't something to be afraid about. alot of times puppies don't like collars OR leashes. chihuahua's in general are very timid. it doesn't take much to make those tiny dog insecure....even when they are known to yap alot.

a better suggestion(or combine both) is to allow your puppy to go without wearing a collar for an hour inside the house. put it on for 10 minutes and REWARD the puppy with ALOT of praise and attention and his/her favorite snack that it wont be able to resist. after 10 minutes, of praise and attention, take the collar off for another hour or so and repeat those steps. when you find your dog getting used to the collar because of the praise and attention and favorite snack, increase the length of time the collar stays on.

a collar to me is essential. not because you need to hook the leash on to something, but for the dog tags and in case the puppy runs away. don't ignore this problem. the longer you ignore it, the harder it will be to correct this behavior in the future. chihuahua's are sensitive so remember to always correct their behevior with extreme positive reinforcement or they can turn timid REAL QUICK

hope this helps....

Well thats some good advice there..

I'm a bit lucky because two of my dogs were bred from a show dog family and were very disciplined, but i'm not saying they are perfect, the little one will rip up anything that looks fluffy, but they seem to love their collars, sometimes after washing them they would sit near their collars waiting for me to put them on because they are just used to them.

I also have some cats which i put bell collars on and they seemed to hate it at first trying to rip the thing off but then eventually got used to them.

Again good advice anwiii!

that's strange but I'm sure your puppy will get used to it in time...anwiii's advice is good, I recommend just giving her a lot of love and staying there with her when you put the collar on and eventually she'll get used to it.

We had a bulldog once that did exactly the same thing, except she would drop to the ground and freeze when she had a collar put on her. We fixed her by using a halter instead of a collar.

You have several options. If you need to identify her, have her micro chipped. That way her identification is perment and cannot ever be removed if she gets lost or stolen.

You can try a harness. But the best thing to do is get a small, lightweight collar, put it on her and just forget it. She will eventually get used to it. That's also the easiest way to do it. But if you want to do it gradually, try just putting the collar on her at first when you go to feed her. (this of course won't work if you free feed) Or put it on, give her a treat, praise her, then take it off. Just keep at it until she gets the idea that it is a good sign that she is getting the collar put on, she is going to get a treat. Dogs figure things like that pretty quick, they are usually very food orientated.

But, just in case, before you forse the collar issue with her, make sure there is not a physical reason why she objects to the collar. She may have a sore or bruise on her neck, or problems with her throat that are not visible from the outside.

You also don't know how she was handled since you got her at 7 months for the first months of her life. Possibly one of her previous owners used a no bark or shock collar on her. If that is the case, it will take considerable time for her to accept that the collar is not going to hurt her.